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Many Gypsies and Travellers in this study believed that they could change their health. Some believed this could be done through changing their lifestyles to more healthy ones, such as modifying behaviours which were seen as unhealthy,

including smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise and diet.

Smoking was mentioned by several as being an unhealthy habit. Although people talked of wishing to give up or cut down on their smoking, it was seen as a

necessary evil to cope with ‘nerves’ and depression problems.

Many acknowledged that excess alcohol consumption was damaging to health and several said they had seen this damage first hand in family members who were alcoholics. Often this experience will influence the drinking habits of the other family members, making them more aware of the damage done personally and to the whole family by alcohol abuse.

Interviewer: Does alcohol affect peoples’ health?

Respondent: An awful lot of people, yeh. It does yeh, but only if you’re fond of it

Interviewer: So it’s only if you drink too much you’re saying.

Respondent: If you drink too much, yeh. Not if you drink too much, it’s nice like if you go out, I don’t know ‘cos I don’t really drink meself. Not with seeing me dad like, ‘cos me dad’s an alcoholic.

Interviewer: Do you think that’s affected his health?

Respondent: Yeh, it has a lot over the years.. .He goes stupid. He’s not the same man as when he’s off it.

(Resp. 12, female, 20yrs, Irish Traveller) Exercise was seen as a good thing for a healthy body and also for a healthy mind.

Men talked of exercise in terms of activities such as jogging, cycling and boxing, whereas women associated exercise with keeping active doing housework and looking after the children.

Eating a healthy diet was seen by some as important for good health and several mentioned the importance of eating vegetables daily and fruit and yogurts. It was acknowledged that too much ‘grease’, fried food and red meat can be bad for your health.

Other ways of improving health were also mentioned such as preventative measures, for example, vaccinations, keeping up with prescribed medications, living in caravans and also cleanliness.

These findings are slightly different in emphasis than those found by Feder (1994) who found environmental factors such as dangerous sites and absence of facilities were considered main contributors to ill health. Hodgins (2006) also found that environmental and social factors were given more importance than lifestyle

measures such as smoking and diet as contributors to ill health. However, that may be a reflection of the fact that there are no temporary sites or roadside

encampments in Wrexham. As mentioned previously, cleanliness is seen as

directly affecting the health of those around you. Living in a caravan rather than a house was seen as a much healthier lifestyle because you lived in the open air rather than an enclosed building.

"Cos you’re out in the open, you’re always out in the fresh air... That’s the travelling life, yeh. You hardly ever see a Traveller like, really sick. When they settles down that’s when they get sick.”

(Resp.5, female, 37yrs, Irish Traveller)

Also, as mentioned earlier, religion and health are closely linked. The health of others can be changed by faith, divine intervention either by petitioning the Pope, pilgrimages to holy places and prayer. This however, is often used either when conventional medicine is failing or alongside conventional medicine. The exception to this being the dividing of the blood executed by the Pope, which is done to protect the children of a double first cousin marriage from abnormalities due to the

‘richness of the blood’.

The close connection between religion and health is not unique to Gypsies and Travellers, but has been reported in other groups of people where religion has a strong influence on life. For example, Bangladeshi mothers interviewed in East London used both Western Medicine but also would consult mullahs, persons at the mosque, prayer and spiritual healers (pir) if their children were ill. Both physical illness and behavioural problems in children were believed to have a possible non­

physical cause (Hillier, cited in Kelleher & Hillier 1996, p.58 - 59). Furthermore, it has been suggested by some studies that religion may be a stronger factor in poor health than ethnicity. Those who are more devoutly religious may have more in common with one another than other members of their own culture (Greenhalgh 2004; Ypinazar 2006). An example of the possible influence of religion in health is observed in the poor health of people of Irish descent in England, Scotland and Wales (Abbotts 2001; Harding 1996; Kelleher 1996). Abbotts (1996) reported that there remain significant differences in health in ‘Catholics’ compared to ‘non- Catholics’ in people of Irish descent, even after accounting for gender and social class.

Also, in the present study, there are those who did not believe that the health of the individual can be changed. Health to some is seen as a matter of luck, what will be, will be. That nothing a person does will affect their health in the end.

“Yeh, its luck of the draw. Some people says that drink is this and drink does that and drink is bad for you, it is really bad cause it can do damage to your inside, but then some people drinks like alcoholics and can pull through it. So you can’t just blame the cigarettes and drinking, can you.’’

(Resp. 13, female, 21yrs, Irish Traveller) Feder (1994) also found that some of the Gypsy/Travellers that he interviewed expressed a fatalistic belief of health. Although he found that Gypsy/Travellers also talked of environmental factors influencing health, these factors, he suggests, are believed to be outside the Gypsy/Travellers’ individual control and so transcend the fatalism/lifestyle dichotomy. Gmelch (1985) suggested that this fatalism seen in Irish Travellers in his study was a coping mechanism when resources and opportunities are severely restricted.

Fatalism, believed to be linked to religious beliefs, has also been found in other ethnic minority groups. For example, Afro-Caribbeans living in the UK, who had been diagnosed and had been living with hypertension also talked of their ‘fate’

and ‘what will be, will be’ in relation to their long-term worries about their condition (Morgan, cited in Kelleher & Hillier 1996, p.25). Also, Gujarati immigrants in the UK had increased supernatural and chance reasons for ill health compared to a British Caucasian beliefs (Jobanputra 2005).

Others interviewed talk about the traditional view of health by Gypsies and

Travellers, in particular, the reluctance of men to see to their health needs. Many men do not register with a GP, choosing to ignore health concerns until they become a serious problem. Men talk in terms of healing themselves. There is a belief that a ‘strong’ man does not need to go for help for ‘minor’ ailments. This reluctance by male Gypsies and Travellers to engage with health care services has been explained by Hawes (1997) in terms of “vague ‘matcho’ reasons”. I put

forward the argument that for Gypsy and Traveller men, illness poses a threat to

their male identity. Because illness is linked with the idea of ‘weakness’ it threatens the ideal of the strong Gypsy and Traveller male.

Also, some Gypsies and Travellers expressed a view that their focus was with the

‘here and now’, that they live from day to day, they don’t look too far to the future so eat whatever they want. That they always have seen life like this and that this will not change.

“We take every day, step by step, we take life as it comes to us, we take things in our stride. We wake up in the morning and we don’t think to ourselves ‘we’re not going to eat that today’, we don’t think nothing like that, d’you know what I mean, we just go to the supennarket, we get what we want, we come back and eat it. ”

(Resp. 2, female, 22yrs, English Gypsy)